Jayasuriya reaches second-fastest IPL century

A savage century from Sanath Jayasuriya stunned the Chennai Super Kings to set up an emphatic 9 wicket win for the Mumbai Indians. Jayasuriya treated the home crowd to a spectacular knock and silenced his critics in a return to top form.

Chasing 157 to win, Jayasuriya came out to bat with Sachin Tendulkar on what was a sporting track. Jayasuriya, however, did not seem to be bothered by the wicket with an assault which took one's breath away. He was helped by some rather poor bowling from the Chennai Super Kings who either strayed onto his pads, or gave him too much room to slash through his favourite point region. This indiscipline from Chennai was highlighted by the fact that ten of the Sri Lankan's eleven sixes came square of the wicket on either side.

It is not often that Sachin Tendulkar is relegated to a second show in a partnership, but even the Master Blaster was happy to sit back and enjoy Jayasuriya's innings. The home crowd was delighted as Jayasuriya played some amazing shots, using his bottom hand to generate awesome power. In an appropriate way to bring up his century, he hit fellow Sri lankan Kapugedera for a huge six over square leg. His attack took the wind out of Chennai's sails, to cap off a memorable day for the southpaw.

After being put in to bat, the Chennai Super Kings started shakily against a tight Mumbai bowling attack. The pitch offered a bit of movement and bounce and the Chennai batsmen struggled to cope with it. Pollock bowled a miserly spell as always, while his partner Ashish Nehra came back strongly after being belted in his first over. Stephen Fleming looked like he was coming to form but was dismissed for 26. Chennai soon found themselves at 46 for 4, before Dhoni and Badrinath took over.

The pair started slowly, but that was understandable as the repair work was much needed at that stage. They took the singles and the twos, but launched into the big shots from the 16th over. Badrinath was clever with his strokes, often playing the paddle shots over short fine leg. Dhoni however was his usual brute self, as the final five overs yielded 59 runs to lift Chennai to a total of 156.